Submerging most regular drones in water probably wouldn’t be the best idea. Waterproof Lily drone has failed, and I hope you didn’t order one as there were some problems with refunds. So, if you’re still looking for a drone to fly over glistening lakes, film water activities or even submerge it in water, Swellpro Drones can be a good solution. This video from Dustin Dunnill demonstrates how the drone works both in the air and underwater....

360° video is taking off like crazy. Is it just a fad as some have suggested? Perhaps. But for now, it’s here and it probably will be for some time. The amount of 360° cameras is seems to be growing daily. From consumer cameras like the Theta S and Gear 360 to expensive cinema solutions, VR has become accessible to all. Even Facebook has gotten in on the act. Somewhere in the middle, sit the action camera rigs....

Officially, the new Z6 & Z7 firmware is still under development, although it’s scheduled for release in May. Amongst various fixes, several new features are being added to both cameras, including the addition of Eye AF. The folks at Newsshooter got a chance to have a brief play with the new firmware in its current state and speak to one of the Nikon reps about the feature during CP+ 2019....

… and none of them have anything to do with making photographs. 1. People person Yeah, you gotta be a people person. No, I didn’t say you have to be an extrovert, you have to be a people person. You have to read people and understand what isn’t being said while they are talking. You can be outgoing or quietly soft-spoken, but you have to be able to work with people and be someone they would like to work with....

This has to be the weirdest yet coolest looking camera mount I’ve ever seen. It’s like a JOBY GorillaPod, but with suction cups. Despite obvious inspiration from a certain aquatic animal, the Tenikle has only 3 legs, not 8. Each of these legs is not only bendy, but also has several suction cups. Combining bendy legs with suction cups certainly opens up more camera positioning options, with less gear. The Tenikle is currently on Kickstarter with just over a couple of days left, and it’s absolutely smashed its $15K goal....

AA batteries are becoming less common amongst photographers as they once were as more flash systems switch to lithium-ion power solutions, but they haven’t disappeared altogether. Many devices do still require them, though, and so photographers and filmmakers still use them. Some photographers opt for something like regular Duracell Alkalines because they’re just less hassle, but a lot go for rechargeables. How good are rechargeables over the long term, though?...

Every now and again, a piece of content comes up, whether it’s a photo project or video or whatever that just makes your jaw hit the floor. And you wonder, after you watch it, just how they could follow up from something so epic and amazing. One such piece of content was the video we saw recently from drone pilot Jay Christensen. In it, he flew a drone through a bowling alley with such skill and finesse that it even caught the eye of James Gunn (who now wants him to come shoot on Guardians of the Galaxy 3)....

In the last year, I’ve walked probably more than 2000 miles with my camera. I love photo walks, because they are so meditative. There is also great excitement when you get home to look at the photos, to see if you caught any great ones. It adds a dimension of extra beauty and flow to your regular long walks. Following, are the seven most important lessons I have learned, when it comes to getting the best possible enjoyment and results from your photo walks....

With as much competition as there is in today’s LED marketplace, it can be tough to know what’s worth buying. There’s so many models out there that look almost identical to each other (or are identical, but with a different brand name). CRIs are all over the place, as is colour balance. As a beginner looking to pick up your first video lighting set, you might not even know where to begin....

Small lights just seem to be popping up more and more lately. We’ve got Lumiee, Litra, Lumecube and a whole bunch of others beginning with “L”, not to mention all the cheap small lights that double as USB power banks over the last year or so. But now we have another one. The BIGSOFTI which, despite its name, isn’t that big at all. It’s a small light, much like a lot of the others that are on the market, but it comes with a bunch of accessories that let you mount it to a bunch of different devices from your phone or laptop, to a camera’s hotshoe or a 1/4-20″ mount....

Do you prefer natural light over studio light? Peter McKinnon does, and in his latest tutorial, he shows a simple way to make your own “natural light” when you don’t have enough of the real one. And not only is it simple, but you can make this setup for about $80, maybe even less. If you shoot and/or live in a place with little natural light, this setup is a lifesaver....

We have heard of multiple cases of sexual misconduct in the photography industry. The latest case was revealed only a few days ago. There’s a dark side to modeling, where models are exploited and harassed by photographers who abuse their power. In this video, Jessica Kobeissi talks about this dark side of modeling. She mentions many examples she’s heard of and this video will be useful for both models and photographers....

There’s hardly anyone who hasn’t seen the “Distracted Boyfriend” meme in some of its variants. Photographer Antonio Guillem captured the same model many times, and Ernie Smith has recently started a Twitter thread showing that she is always wearing the same facial expression. The fact that the girl is “easily shocked when looking at screens” has become the topic of the thread, and it has quickly gone viral. You know the girl on the right, don’t you?...

It seems photographers are constantly looking for the best ways to retouch their photos–search any photography group and you won’t have to scroll far to find a post about dodge and burn or frequency separation. Recently, Stefan Kohler, Pratik Naik, and the rest of the Infinite Tools team added a new panel to their Infinite Tools Suite: The Infinite Retouch Panel. This panel is geared toward providing the most useful tools in a retouching workflow and considering their history of creating other Photoshop tools to help with creativity and workflow, I decided to take a serious look at this panel to see if it is worthwhile as a photographer and retoucher....

Although not common, flash support is something that quite a few people have been asking for with smartphones. Nobody’s seriously looking to replace their DSLRs and mirrorless cameras with phones, but being able to fire your strobes from your phone can be handy for things like behind the scenes shots. According to 9to5Mac, though, new specs shared with manufacturers on Apple’s Made-for-iPhone (MFi) licensing programme show that the iPhone 11 may soon support for some degree of native 3rd party flash support....

Venus Optics has announced their new Laowa 15mm f/4.5 Zero-D Shift lens for Canon EF/RF, Nikon F/Z, Sony FE, Leica L and Pentax K. Covering a huge 65mm diameter image circle, Laowa says this is the world’s widest shift lens available for either full-frame or medium format. Offering +/- 11mm of shift (or +/- 8mm on medium format cameras like the Fuji GFX series – although, you’ll need an adapter), the lens allows you to correct for the perspective issues inherent in shooting ultra-wide-angle lenses which gives the appearance of buildings “leaning” in the shot....

Venus Optics has now officially announced their new Laowa 50mm f/2.8 2X Ultra Macro APO lens designed specifically for the Micro Four Thirds system. It’s for use on all of the Panasonic & Olympus cameras as well as more video-oriented systems like the Pocket 4K and various Z-Cam cameras. While this is a manual focus macro lens, it does contain a chip which communicates with your camera. When you spin the focus ring, your camera’s LCD automatically zooms in, you can set your aperture via the camera body instead of a ring on the lens, and it also means the correct details are stored in the EXIF data of your images....

A few days ago, a photo “debunking” protest fires in Paris appeared on Twitter and it quickly went viral. It shows two images side-by-side “proving” that the fire was actually harmless, but only shot from a low angle so it appears huge. However, when this “fact checker” was fact checked, it turned out that it was actually fake: reportedly , the two photos weren’t only taken on different days, but also in different parts of the city....

Luminar 4 is set to be released this fall, and Skylum is gradually revealing all the exciting features it’s going to offer. After showing off how its Sky Replacement feature works, Skylum now demonstrates its new AI Structure tool. It’s a smart content-aware tool that automatically adds detail to a photo, but without negatively affecting people or other subjects. With the Luminar 4, Skylum is relying more on AI tools than ever before....

These phone vs “real camera” comparisons are getting a little old. They usually end up one of two ways. Either the DSLR or video camera absolutely hammers the phone, or the phone does surprisingly well – which is often just a case of circumstance. And while this video from Rhino Camera Gear does touch on some of that, it also looks at some of the more specific advantages of a big heavy Sony FS5 camera rig vs the relatively tiny iPhone X....